064: Elle King - Love Stuff (2015)

January 12, 2021 / Amanda Rodgers

“The biggest themes in a lot of my music are heartbreak — I am kind of an asshole and a monster, but you love me anyway — and religion. ‘Am I going to hell? Where’s the devil? Am I the devil?’”

—Elle King

Elle King is a tough, scrappy, incredibly talented musician who doesn’t get nearly as much attention as she should. Rather than being dismissed as a “one-hit wonder,” which has unfairly (and inaccurately) already happened, she should be appreciated as a versatile artist who can rock your face off with enormous guitars and drums one minute, then turn around and break your heart with a banjo ballad the next. Today we’re here to tell you why her enormous voice, her gift for both melody and lyrics, and her love of really loud percussion make her an artist you should love. If you don't get it right away, just turn up the volume.

Miscellany

We forgot to mention in the episode that Elle King absolutely did not ride her dad’s coattails when she was starting her career. In fact, she goes by King and not Schneider specifically to avoid that.
We also forgot to mention that Elle learned how to play the bass before making Shake the Spirit and wrote most of the songs on bass rather than guitar. It shows and is awesome.
Further evidence that Elle writes her own lyrics can be found on her Soundcloud, where there is an early version of Cocaine Carolina with different spelling but the same words.
Mike was exactly right about the Wanda Jackson influence - turns out Elle is a huge fan and even wrote a song for her.
Amanda highly recommends following Elle’s Instagram. It is extremely charming and funny.
Not only did the podcast Hit Parade do a great episode on one-hit wonders, they also covered the reasons why we all paid $18.99 for CDs that turned out to have one good song on them back in the ‘90s.
Mike’s “I don’t like this song” is a reference to the time Amanda shocked all her cohosts toward the end of the Yes episode, which is why Amanda laughed so hard.
We forgot to mention that the producer of “See You Again” is Eg White, who was in the band Yip Yip Coyote and had previously written some songs with Adele.
Rich mistakenly referred to the final R.E.M. album Collapse into Now as Do the Collapse, which is a Guided by Voices album from 1999. For more information about Guided by Voices, this time in its proper context, just wait a few episodes!

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call

Amanda Rodgers (host)
Chris Willie Williams (moderator)
Rich Bunnell
Mike DeFabio

Love Stuff tracklist

Where the Devil Don’t Go
Ex’s & Oh’s
Under the Influence
Last Damn Night
Kocaine Karolina
Song of Sorrow
America’s Sweetheart
I Told You I Was Mean
Ain’t Gonna Drown
Jackson
Make You Smile
See You Again

Other clips used

Elle King:

Baby Outlaw
Good Girls
A Heart That Breaks Is a Heart That Wastes Its Time
Under the Influence (Live)
Ain’t Gonna Drown (Live)
Shame
Runaway
Another You

Others:

Led Zeppelin - Gallows Pole
Neil Young - Old Man
The Muppets - The Rainbow Connection
Eagles - Take It Easy
The Magnetic Fields - All My Little Words
Sonny Rhodes - The Ballad of Serenity
Mumford & Sons - The Cave
The 5th Dimension - The Rainmaker
Harry Nilsson - Everybody’s Talkin’
Dave Matthews Band - Don’t Drink the Water
Mastodon - Divinations
Disclaimer - Silverplated Wound
The Hollies - Stop! Stop! Stop!
Willie Nelson - Bloody Mary Morning
Vince Gill - I Know You’re Out There Somewhere
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date With the Night
Adele - Hello
Wanda Jackson - Funnel of Love
Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
The Flaming Lips - Lightning Strikes the Postman
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Madonna - Die Another Day
Deep Purple - Into the Fire
Douglas Dillard - Foggy Mountain Breakdown
Sufjan Stevens - For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti
Steve Martin - Let’s Get Small
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home
Katy Perry - Firework
Def Leppard - Animal
The Fisk Jubilee Singers - Wade in the Water
OutKast - Ms. Jackson
Gomez - Get Miles
Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me

Band/album personnel

Elle King - Lead vocals, backing vocals, banjo, guitars, drums, percussion, and beats

Backing vocals: Zach Carothers, Scarlet Cherry, John Gourley, Martin Johnson, Tyler Sam Johnson, Phillip Lawrence, Kyle O’Quin, Alisan Porter

Bass: Dave Bassett, Jackknife Lee, Brandon Paddock, Mark Ronson, Sebastian Steinberg

Bouzouki: Blake Mills

Drums, percussion, and beats: Dave Bassett, Sam Bell, Jeff Bhasker, Patrick Carney, Zach Carothers, James Gadson, John Gourley, John Hill, Martin Johnson, Patrick Keeler, Jackknife Lee, Kyle O’Quin, Darren Weiss

Guitars: Dave Bassett, Martin Johnson, Jackknife Lee, Blake Mills, Hunter Perrin, Mark Ronson, Eg White

Keyboards: Dave Bassett, Jeff Bhasker, John Hill, Jackknife Lee

Organ: Jeff Bhasker, Jackknife Lee, Jamie Muhoberac, Kyle O’Quin

Piano: Jeff Bhasker, Martin Johnson, Jackknife Lee, Jamie Muhoberac, Kyle O’Quin, Brandon Paddock

Synthesizer: John Hill

Producers: Dave Bassett, Jeff Bhasker, John Hill, Martin Johnson, Jackknife Lee, Eg White

Credits

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:

Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Elle King - Under the Influence (this episode only)

You can buy or stream Love Stuff and other albums by Elle King at elleking.com, Soundcloud, your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.

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tags / Amanda Rodgers